GPS Upper School students competed in the Regional Science Olympiad on Saturday and nearly out-medaled the athletic Olympians. They will move on to the state event in Knoxville on Saturday, April 12. Each of the GPS teammates took at least one medal, winning first among a dozen teams in the regional event. The Middle School team of 6th through 9th graders finished third but also advances to the state competition.
The team of sophomores through seniors won medals in 17 of 23 events that spanned a spectrum of science and engineering disciplines, according to GPS chemistry teacher Keith Sanders, who directs the GPS Upper School team. Middle School teacher Katye Couch ‘92 leads the younger students; both are assisted by volunteers Linda and John Dizer, and GPS alumna Anne Campeau ’05.
“A lot of work went into this success, and everyone truly shares in the victory,” said Mr. Sanders. “It would be far too easy to focus only on the events that took medals. I suspect that it was close at the top, so literally every single point from every event made this possible.”
Events ranged from the expected astronomy, chemistry, and forensics to several cleverly titled competitions such as bungee drop, designer genes, mission possible, and write it, do it. GPS Upper School students won five firsts, six seconds, two thirds, and four fourth place medals.
Members of the winning region team are Madison Bratcher, Mary Chandler Gwin, Anjali Ravee, Najia Humayun, Gloria Yan, Vivian Liu, Danielle Richardson, Hannah Thel, Shannon Han, Megan Rohn, Ayushi Sinha, Anjali Chandra, Jen Andrews, Meghna Talluri, and Lexi Brzezienski. Although they actually competed at the region event, where 15 is the team limit, three other seniors helped in the preparations and may compete at state: Kristen Carter, Ashley Martin, and Taylor Pels.
Complete Middle School results are expected later. Members of the Middle School team are Sarah Goodrich, Mackenzie Valentour, Margaret Lim, Sophie Veys, Emily Paik, Leah Baxter, Darya Bajenstani, Komal Patri, Sophia Han, Lynn Mai, Emily Peoples, Claire Calhoun, Hannah Prescott, and Alia Smith.